Recently, as I've hit 40 and somehow my body has just realized this , I've been out of the running a little bit as my body seems to be falling slightly apart. As a mental case good SEO everything relates to SEO for me. And thus while giving my body the rest it needed I was thinking "this is why you need some kind of perpetuum mobile of SEO". I might have mumbled it instead of thinking it as I distinctly remember a person of the medical profession going "come again?" but face it, that's besides the point.
The point is that despite your wonderful appearances (yes, I'm talking about you) any day might bring the moment that takes you down for at least a 10-count.
Does Your Site Go Down With You?
With you down and out for the count, what happens to your site?
Let me put that another way. Let's assume your site is your online business . What happens to your online generated income when you go down?
Put yet another way -- and now it's a family man doing the talking -- who are you taking down with you when you go down?
The best thing would be of course if your web site can weather the storm for you; if the past active investments you made in time and money pay themselves back by providing residual income, residual SEO.
Past Investments
So which search engine optimization steps could you take that help you now, in the long run and way, way down the line - even when you're not there to push it forward?
Most of what comes to my mind is traditional white hat SEO.
Make sure your site is about one specific topic. If that topic entails many subtopics, address each one in its own subfolder or category. (See: SEO Siloing, Advanced SEO - Siloing Content, Implementing the Power of Theming and Siloing on Your Blog, PageRank sculpting - Siloing and more)
Then attract links. Build relations within your community, within your niche. (See: Building Link Targeted Content that Works, Divide and Conquer: Creating and Managing Your Link Campaign, There's No Shortcut for Link Building: A Case for Relationship Building, Advanced Link Building - An Interview With Fantomaster)
Try to invest the time in writing that one single post, that one much needed article, that "if only someone would." tool and get it linked (see above) so you have a shot at creating self-reinforcing authority for that one piece of content. (See: Filthy Linking Rich And Getting Richer!, What is a Self Reinforcing Authority)
Part of that ongoing cycle are evergreen social sites like StumbleUpon and del.icio.us: sites which can drive traffic not once in a spike but continuously, ensuring perpetual exposure to new audiences who in turn can link again or vote up again.
Future Proofing
You need signs of life on your site.
Write at least 8 posts and schedule them to be published, once a week. Schedule them now. You don't know where you'll be tomorrow; relaxing at the couch or panting in a hospital bed.
As the scheduled date for a post draws near you can always reschedule the post to a couple of weeks later.
Make sure the posts are timeless. They have to "work" in 2008 . or in 2011.
I'm one of those who believes freshness can only help your site. Think about investing in an aggregator page or aggregator section on your site. You don't need to pipe RSS blog feeds through it only; you can just as easily pass news items and keyword feeds through it.
You can do this future proofing as simple or fancy as you want. Consider a sort of dead man's switch where after a certain amount of days your blog states that you're on a reduced posting schedule.
Share Information
Your tech people, your employees, your business partner, your friend, wife or husband - someone besides you needs to have access to your site and its related information.
Domain registar login, hosting login. FTP login. From which financial resource is this paid? Who needs to be called or emailed in case of emergency? Is there information which should be destroyed or returned to clients or partners? What about Adsense in case of death?
What are you doing to minimize the impact of personal down time? Have you even considered the possibility of your own down time? Is future proofing something that can be folded back into client sites?
About the Author: Ruud Hein
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I am not quite there yet but, this is great advise and I thank you for it.
I agree that StumbleUpon and Delicious are evergreen sites and if you’re only 40 you will be evergreen with them 🙂
Great article. I will try to half of what you suggest. Planning on incrementally placing content on the page is a great idea.
The scheduling posts has been on my to do list for a week already, I guess that kidn of defeats the point but its somethign that I must get roudn to doing.
Ruud, great post! Anyone with a family that relies on the Web to support their family should see this post as a huge wake-up call. It is true, you never know what is going to happen from moment to moment. And I am a firm believer in “the 5 Ps.” Perfect Preperation Prevents Poor Performance.
Most of the time we are busy working and living for today and especially for blogger we most often tend to be chasing the latest buzz.
Your article is a wake-up call – of what if?
I agree with you that we should not only plan for tomorrow but we need to invest more on those activities that pay for themselves for days and years to come
Thank you for sharing your SEO experience with all of us…nice post.
The good investments on those activities that wil bring you benefit for a long period of time is a great way to be sure in your future
That’s a great article on how to be prepared to weather any potential storm. I’ve started scheduling articles like you suggested, now I had better do something about the SEO as well.
Place everything your site needs down in a plan. This will safeguard you in scenarios where you may be taken down by natural illness, etc. Good point
Anna Nguyen